Alien Influenza Pandemic
by Loopy Lupa
Summary: Chapter THREE is FINALLY UP! Zim's gotten his hands on the deadly Influenza virus, and his intentions are not good for the human race.
1. Chapter One- Just Another Day

  
  


For some odd reason, I was in Biology studying diseases when I felt the urge to write IZ angst. This is the result, and it's in first person from Dib's point of view. Let's see where I go with this.... Oh, yeah, sorry that it's kinda out of character.   
  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own IZ, or the Flu.   
  
  
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Chapter One: Just Another Day   
  
  
  
"During the year of 1918, Influenza killed twenty-five million people world-wide in a single year. Everyone on the planet was at risk of this disease, as it was spread by coughing, sneezing, or even talking.   
  
  
"The first cases developed in Camp Funston, Kansas, on March eleven of 1918. A cook named Albert Mitchell went to the infirmary with typical flu-like symptoms. By noon of that same day, 107 soldiers were sick. It spread so quickly that 225 were sick the next day. It then spread with the soldiers when they went to Europe to fight in World War One.   
  
  
"Even remote and isolated places soon became infected with the disease. Within one week, every state in the US had the VIRUS floating around in the air."   
  
  
I yawned and took out a piece of paper. Doodling pictures of me exposing Zim, I paid little attention to Miss Bitters's lecture, which had turned to telling of how a pair of lungs from a man killed by Influenza was found and the virus isolated.   
  
  
Zim was paying attention, though. He was the only one that actually stayed awake and attentative through all of Miss Bitters's daily lectures. What was going through his head? What kind of evil, alien plans was he making inside that large, green head?   
  
  
"Because you are required by the state to go on a field-trip once a month, we will be going to see the man's lungs. Everyone line up and go outside."   
  
  
The class cheered at the thought of getting out the classroom, but I saw past that. If the lungs still carried the virus, then Zim could....   
  
  
"Miss Bitters!" I shouted, raising my hand high. "We can't go on a field-trip to the institution! The lungs are still dangerous, you could end mankind!"   
  
  
"If you want to stay here, that's fine with me." She growled back. "I don't want to have his trip any more than you do, Dib, you children are even stinkyer when outside."   
  
  
Seeing it hopeless, I sighed, defeated, and followed the class out to the skool bus. Maybe I was over-reacting. There was no proof that Zim had seen the connections there. Perhaps there was a chance that he didn't have any intention at all of extracting the virus from the lungs and using it against humans.   
  
  
It was a long boring trip. I sat at the front of the bus, alone as usual, and Zim sat in the back, also alone. He was grinning maliciously at me, and I knew he was working something out in his mind. _Please don't have plans to destroy mankind with Influenza. You can do anything to me as long as you don't use Influenza!_   
  
  
When we had arrived, everyone filed out of the bus and were led by Dad's security guards to the location of the lungs. I lingered in the back of the group to talk to Zim.   
  
  
"What are you staring at, Zim? Are you trying to see if any of your alien diseases would kill humans, because I doubt that they'd be strong enough to wipe us all out." Yeah, real smart, Dib, just give the alien ideas.   
  
  
"Oh, no, there aren't many diseases where I'm from. We've eradicated many, many viruses and, uh, bacteria." He said, in his usual tone that suggested I was crazy to even mention it.   
  
  
All I could do in response was raise my eyebrow curiously. Before I could say anything, though, Zim had closed his eyes and sped into the bulk of the group, whistling innocently.   
  
  
He was up to something, that was for sure. I'd have to keep on my toes and watch him very carefully.There was nothing else I could do, unless I was able to expose him right on the spot in a room littered with Dad's guards.   
  
  
Subconciously, I stopped walking and pushed my way into a room on the left side of the hallway. It was my dad's dressing room, and he was inside.   
  
  
"Who's there?" He called, then turned around. "Did you get lost on a tour, little boy?"   
  
  
"Uh, no, I'm not lost. Just took a wrong turn, Dad." I explained. "If you don't mind, I'll just-"   
  
  
It was too late, he hadn't recognized me. Dad pushed a button on the gearbox on his arm and talked into it. "Would you mind doing a fan clean-out in here?"   
  
  
"Wait, wait, wait!" I cried as, instantly, two guards jumped out from nowhere and tackled me down. "Let me go, I have to protect mankind!"   
  
  
"I remember you." One guard said. "I thought I told you not to come back in here. You're going right outside, where you belong!"   
  
  
Countless times, I've been dragged out of Dad's room, kicking and screaming. He NEVER recognized me as his son. "Let me go! Let me GO!"   
  
  
As I'd found out before, it was a hopeless case. There was no stopping Zim now, no matter how hard I fought. But I couldn't just let him take over without a fight.   
  
  
"You have to let me back in! You're dooming yourselves! The world will die from Influenza, and it will all be your fault!" I screamed as soon as I had been dumped outside, pounding on the door over and over. "It's all your fault!"   
  
  
Only, it wasn't their fault. It was my fault for walking into Dad's dressing room in the first place. I was trying to save the human race, but now I had wiped it out. No matter how hard I tried now, there would be no stopping Zim.   
  
  
Miserably, I began to head home. No one, not even Miss Bitters, would even notice that I was gone. If I could successfully sneak into Zim's lab tonight, Earth just might have a chance of survival....  
  
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There's the first chapter. Not too angsty yet, but it will get more in later chapters. For now, just R&R. I'll get the next chapter up soon, I promise. 


	2. Chapter Two- Recreating A Virus

  
  


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I hate it when I break my promises. How long ago did I promise this chapter? Nearly two months? Well, here it is finally. More disease madness (not really madness, morely just creepy stuff).   
  
  
Disclaimer: I still don't own Zim. But I do own the happiness that I feel inside knowing that the new episodes are on!  
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Chapter Two: Recreating A Virus   
  
  
  
Breathing heavily, I stood outside Zim's house, just out of range of the lawn gnomes. Across the yard and underneath the house, Zim would have just made it home with the virus. I knew he had it from the malicious glint in his eyes when I encountered him after he returned from the field trip.   
  
  
I had returned home after seeing him to prepare to sneak in. There was an emergency back-up plan I had been saving for an event such as this. Zim had failed to cover up the blind spot in the gnomes, even after I had unwillingly revealed the information. Now that would come in handy, especially if I was able to stop his evil.   
  
  
Zipping up Dad's old cloaking jacket, I controlled my breathing and stepped forward into the alien's lawn. Tracing the steps that I had practiced inside my head, the ones I had used before for so many other hopeful plans, I snuck through to Zim's house unnoticed. When I safely reached the window, I peered through to see the robot, like usual, watching the television intently.   
  
  
Silently, I slipped the window open and gained access to Zim's home. As I pulled myself through, I took extra care to not attract the attention of the robot, though it probably wouldn't matter if he realized that I was there. He took a glance at me as I walked in front of him across the room, but after noting my presence went back to staring brainlessly at the Scary Monkey Show.   
  
  
Entering the kitchen, I dully noted the toilet that lay behind the table. Zim was misinformed about most human things, but it was only more proof of his true alieness. "Come on, there has to be an entrance to his lab somewhere in here!"   
  
  
That's when the tall garbage can by the side of the counter caught my eye. It had a soft blue, unnatural glow to it that just screamed alien. Hoping it was an entrance, I pried open the lid and eagerly looked inside. Just as I thought, there was a pipe in the bottom that twisted out of sight after several feet.   
  
  
"Here goes nothing." Holding my breath, I jumped up into the garbage can and went on the wildest ride ever. It was scarier than any roller coaster invented by man, with more loops and turns than a intricate knot.   
  
  
After several minutes of trying to stifle the screams arrising in the back of my throat, I finally shot out the bottom, flying a few feet and coming to my destination in front of a large, round piece of floor. Curiously, I stepped onto it and was sent on another wild ride.   
  
  
It was a rush, the platform sailed through the lab faster than a race car; and there was nothing to hold onto! The gravity on it would stop me from falling off, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that I would fly away.   
  
  
When it stopped, I was in yet another part of the lab. Dizzily, I hopped off it and tried to figure out where Zim would be. It shouldn't be too hard, but I just had to make sure he didn't find me first.   
  
  
Suddenly, the loud maniacal laugh of Zim's floated into my ears. It was a laugh that I heard often enough, but would never get used to. It filled me with such a rage that I wanted to strangle him, to take out all my rage on his awful green body.   
  
  
_Control yourself, Dib._ I told myself, trying to be crafty so he wouldn't discover me. _You're not here to kill him, just find out what he's going to do with the virus._ That was when I spotted him, as I turned a corner, sitting in front of the control panel of his main computer.   
  
  
Two thick, black gloves were on his hands, wires running from them to the computer. As I watched, the image on the display screen showed a close-up image of the virus, with little hands working the same way that Zim's hands did.   
  
  
"So, he must be altering the virus! Then he's going to release it on the Earth! Everyone's doomed!" After stating that to myself, I fell silent. The computer had begun to talk in a deep, computerized voice.   
  
  
"The virus has been correctly altered. Incubation time has been reduced to: one hour. Time until death has been reduced to: one day. Mortality rate has been increased to: one-hundred percent." It said. "Would you like to try it on sample cells?"   
  
  
"Ooh, yes. Copy the virus and insert it into the test Dib cells." Zim commanded, but I sank to the floor at his words. There was no way he could know I was there, but how else would he have _my_ cells? Did he just keep a sample of everyone around to expirement on when the need arose?   
  
  
"The virus has been inserted. Test result shall be displayed." I tried to fight the urge to watch what happened, but my curiousity overtook me. Peering around the corner again, I saw my cells up on the screen and the virus spreading inside it. As was normal with a virus, the cells were tricked into creating copies. Disparingly, I watched as more and more of the copies were created and soon one of my cells burst, releasing a wave of the little viruses out everywhere. Involuntarily, I shuddered.   
  
  
"Create more copies. Soon enough shall be created and I shall rule the world with the disease... thing." Zim began to laugh again and I once again felt the urge to do something. Before I knew what was going on, I had jumped up and yelled a taunt at Zim.   
  
  
"Get the Dib human!" Zim screamed angrily once I came back to myself. Seeing huge mechanical arms lunging for me, I turned and fled.   
  
  
However, there was no way to outrun them. I didn't know my way around and was soon lost in the the mess of wire and machines, with the arms still on my tail. Without warning, I rounded a pile of boxes to find myself face to face with Zim. He blocked me and allowed one arm to snatch me off the ground.   
  
  
"So, you thought you could sneak in here and stop my most amazing plan ever, did you?" He laughed a little. "Stupid, foolish human! You'll never stop me! Now, prepare to feel the wrath of Zim! Next week, my virus shall be released upon all humans! Even you shall be helpless to stop me!" He burst out into his evil laughs once again, stopping for a few seconds to leave a simple order: "Toss him outside. He won't be bothering me soon enough."   
  
  
As a perfect ending to the day, I was sent on yet _another_ ride through the lab. Eventually, I was tossed into a long, tunnel only to be launched out of the house and fly across the street. From there, I dusted myself off and ran home to explain everything to my dad.  
  
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There you go, chapter two. Hopefully, chapter three will be up sooner. 


	3. Chapter Three Starting the Epidemic

Ha, I said chapter three should be up sooner! It's been over eight months.... Well, I hope nobody really missed this story! Anywho, I'll just shut up and let you read. Sorry if Dib's a little out of character in this chapter. I just haven't watched the show in so long!   
  
  
Disclaimer: Though I'd like to pretend that I am Jhonen Vasquez, I cannot lie about owning this story. I don't own Influenza (or everyone at Nick would have it right now for cancelling Zim) and I never will own Zim.  
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Chapter Three: Starting the Epidemic   
  
  
Dad didn't believe a word I told him. No matter how many times I tried to explain, or how many details I included about what I saw, he would claim with a laugh that it was "impossible to recreate a virus that has been dead for many years. No, dead is not the right word. We want to call it eradicated, son, for it has been wiped off the face of the Earth, but was never alive to begin with."   
  
  
"I can't believe Dad won't believe me!" I vented to Gaz the next morning as my toast cooked in the toaster. "Zim is planning to destroy all mankind, and Dad can only go on about how an _alien_ could never make a virus!"   
  
  
"You have a big head." Gaz replied, sounding disinterested as usual. She pulled a juicebox and a piece of pizza left over from the night before from the fridge, her average breakfast items. Sitting down at the round table, she managed to multi-task: eating the food at the same time as killing vampire pigs on her Gameslave 2.   
  
  
I sat down next to her, not bothering to butter my burnt toast before chewing the crunchy edges between comments. "Gaz, you really ought to care more about this. If Zim gets this virus out into the world, all mankiiind will die! Does that mean anything at all to you?"   
  
  
She shrugged, not looking up from the enticing liquid crystal display of the finest handheld game she owned at the moment. "It means that you'll die. Yay. Now shut up, you're ruining my concentration."   
  
  
"You just don't get it." There I gave up. If I hadn't gotten through to her by now, I never would. Instead of trying to pursue it, I finished my breakfast and proceeded to walk to skool.   
  
  
Normally, Dad required me to walk with Gaz, least either of us be stolen to hurt his name. Just this once, though, I'd have to go early to keep an eye on Zim, and that meant leaving my slow sister behind to arrive at her usual five minutes before the bell. For only one day, though, I was sure she'd be fine walking on her own.   
  
  
However, Zim wasn't at skool when I arrived. Before taking aim and beaning me in the head with a ball, Chunk told me he hadn't seen Zim step onto the playground all morning. Worried and confused, I pulled myself up from the moist blacktop and ran up the front steps to check inside the building.   
  
  
There was no sign of the alien all morning. Gaz came by, ignoring me and nearly knocking me from my perch on the skool's front porch as she went inside. Her muscles could be lethal, and her hand had pushed my face aside like lightning; there wasn't even enough time to ask her if she'd seen any sign of Zim before I was falling with arms windmilling with only one foot at the edge of the top step.   
  
  
Somehow I managed to bring my foot back in before I fell backwards onto the cement walk below. Those burning laughs would have torn into me like they always did. It really shouldn't have mattered that they laughed- they always laugh at the geniuses- but it always hurt to have my pride and intelligence insulted by them.   
  
  
Too soon, the tardy bell rang I was forced to retreat from my position to sink into Ms. Bitters's class- two minutes late as usual when I noticed Zim wasn't there. The old routine excuse-giving was no longer necessary, as the teacher had gotten far too used to it to care.   
  
  
"Let me guess, vampire baby on the way to skool?" she asked, slithering over from her desk in a black swirl. Gulping, I gave her a quick nod and fled to my seat. Everyone knew Ms. Bitters was quite harmless physically, but I still had a very deep fear of her. That was something every student who went through her class possessed for the rest of their natural lives.   
  
  
Almost immediately, the class sank into its usual stupor. Nothing was going on in the skool, so Ms. Bitters skipped announcements to go straight into her lecture. "Today we'll be 'visiting' Ancient Greece. Since we've spent minimal time covering the history of civilization, we need to go over Athens and the _disgusting_ living conditions they lived in that eventually led to their inevitable DOOM! We'll learn why it doesn't pay to live in times before the inventions of sewers and plumbing!"   
  
  
I suppressed a yawn and struggled with all my might to stay awake. Not for the lecture- never for the lecture- but for Zim. Halfway through the day's first hour, he still hadn't shown up for class. Very suspicious... he wouldn't try releasing the disease already, would he? There was no time for him to plan what steps he would take in using it. There was no time for _me_ to plan a way to prevent it.   
  
  
Another thirty minutes and the door finally burst open. I leapt to the top of my desk, finger outstretched accusingly at the small figure that should have been Zim. All that came was laughter when Melvin walked in, face pale, eyes drooped, and hands over his constantly hacking mouth.   
  
  
"Sorry I'm late," he apologized between coughs and honks, "I feel sick." He removed his hands from his mouth and let loose an almighty cough. I swear that I could see the germs fly from him, launching their tiny, bug forms onto my classmates.   
  
  
The realization hit in a heartbeat. I was too late, this was Zim's influenza, already sent out into the world. Clutching the neck of my jacket around my mouth, I ran to flee into the hall, for the first time ignoring the orders from Ms. Bitters to calm down and sit. Zita clamped onto my arm as I reached for the door handle, her face white as a ghost's and her eyes a pale grey. She coughed on my hand, a cough that sounded painful and forced.   
  
  
"Dib, you're a dweeb," she whispered through a hoarse throat, "can't you save me? This... pain! It's this horrible pain! It feels as though a truck ran over me. Save me, Dib, save me!" Horrified by the instant effects of the virus, I shook her off an flung the door from its hinges.   
  
  
From there, I went as fast as my legs could carry me to the bathroom. "The germs! These horrible germs!" The dirty water flowing from the tap was refreshing, though it fell far too short of sufficiently getting rid of the virus. The deadly influenza still crowded on my arms and kept me from inhaling in the fear it would begin its work on my cells.   
  
  
Ooh, the very thought of it made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. A shiver of fear trickled down my spine to follow. Shaking off like a dog, I ran from the bathroom in search of something cleaner.   
  
  
By the entrance of the skool, the newly-installed Poop Cola machine glistened in the low light of a cloudy morning.The green and purple glow drew my eyes, beckoning me into the soda it held inside. It was probably the machine talking through my mind as it was programmed to do, but I was convinced Poop was much cleaner than the skool's water (later, when I thought through it again, it still made perfect sense)   
  
  
I deposited the sixty cents that clanged deep into the machine's bowels and started the whirring reaction that eventually produced a can of cola sporting Poop Dog and an ad for their fundraiser candies in the slot at the bottom. It flew out, threatening to pop me in the head. Miraculously, I managed to catch it with minimal pain to my palms.   
  
  
Eagerly, I popped the top and poured the brown, sugar-loaded liquid over my arms, then, as a precaution, over my head. It worked: the green virus germs were swept away. With a great sigh of relief, I fell to the ground and basked in the glory of health.   
  
  
"Darn, I had hoped you would be among the very first to become infected." I gasped and whirled around where I sat. Zim, globule red eyes glaring from the shadows of the halls, wore a great smile; he was obviously very pleased with what he had done. "Aw, well, I suppose I can't have everything I want."   
  
  
"What have you done, Zim?" I demanded, leaping to my feet. Black boots thudding on the damp, tiled floor, I prepared my defense in case he did something.   
  
  
"What have _I_ done, Dib-human?" Zim asked, confidence higher in his voice than usual. "The question is, what have you _not_ done? There's a lot of things you might have done to stop me. Last night, you might have destroyed the power source in my lab- the power source that I found you next to."   
  
  
My head went into a dizzy reminiscence. Come to think of it, I _did_ remember seeing that. Zim wasn't done yet, though. "This morning, you had a chance as well. Instead of asking around for me, you should have been looking for me yourself. I was only right in here, waiting for some pathetic tardy student to launch the disease upon. I worried you would find and try to stop me, but I worried for nothing."   
  
  
I growled. "Where's the cure, Zim? I'll make it my business to infect you with the disease unless you make it all stop."   
  
  
"Ah hah hah!" Zim's arachnolegs shot out of his backpod, lifting him high over my head. One of the four shot out and caught itself in my jacket. "There is no cure, and there never will be one. The virus contains a chemical that helps Irken cells to defend against the rest of it. I'm immune, and the chemical inside greatly speeds up the reaction in humans. No plan in Irken history has ever been so flawless and perfect!"   
  
  
He was about to start his laugh when a far off door slammed. Startled, he flew into the air vent on his extra legs, dropping me in a heap on the floor.   
  
  
For several moments, I did not move. It was too late. I was too late. The disease was out, the epidemic had begun. All my fighting and it had all been in vain. Ultimately, I had lost. Earth was lost.  
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All right, so it's probably not as good as my earlier chapters. Just go ahead and tell me what you think anyway, supposing you took the time to read it. Who knows when chapter four will be up with how slow I've been? I'll try to get it up sooner, but I won't make any promises this time. 


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